iMac running Windows

I have an iMac 24" on order to replace my knackered PC. I am a software developer and still need to be able to run Visual Studio, so will also be installing Windows XP. What I would like some feedback on is whether to:

(1) Dual boot into Windows
(2) Buy and install Parallels and then Windows etc...
(3) Buy and install VMWare Fusion and then ...

I am leaning towards Parallels, as; will give me the ability to carry on with e-mail etc while still running Windows in a window.

I would appreciate peoples advise on the matter, especially if you have experience of either or both virtual solutions.

probably best to download the trials for both Parallels and Fusion and try them out for yourself to see what suits you best

Parallels has a nice feature which lets you run the operating systems literally side by side without any window, they call it coherence mode, you basically get a mixed view of application windows/software on the same desktop

the dual boot is a good way to go if you need to use all of the computing power inside Windows or for gaming mostly ... running two systems side by side can get slow

Not sure about Visual Windows and what it does but I do this for the reason you want to - check email on the Mac and run XP via Parallels all day in business. Love it and have found you need to max the ram to make it happy. I have stayed at V3 of Parallels but have (and not installed) V4 so that stability is paramount at my end. Not the fastest as Boot Camp maybe but works for me and we have two 24 inch - one White (Tiger) and one Aluminum (Leopard).

v4 Parallels problems!

Looks like there are quite a few problems with v4 of Parallels see this. Has anyone any experience?

Spook said:

Looks like there are quite a few problems with v4 of Parallels see this. Has anyone any experience?

Click to expand...

I actually bought both programs. Originally, I was a Parallels user, but found it too unstable to continue with. So, I switched over to VMWare Fusion and it's been rock-solid ever since. VMWare also has much better Linux support, if that's of concern.

VMWare pretty much started the virtualization business. Fusion is now a solid, stable and fast product - and in my opinion, Parallels is now in catch-up mode.